2014 F1 season

The new cars were considerably slower than their predecessors over a single lap in Melbourne but their straight-line speeds were higher and the race pace was encouraging too.

Here’s how the cars’ performance in Australia compared to previous seasons.

One-lap pace

The fastest lap time set during the 2014 Australian Grand Prix weekend – Nico Rosberg’s 1’29.375 – was over three seconds slower than the cars were lapping last year. Even taking into account the wet conditions which prevented significant improvement of lap times during qualifiyng, the drivers weren’t going to find that much time between final practice and Q3.

The more conservative tyre allocations being used this year will certainly have played a role in slowing the cars’ single-lap pace. And we are still in the early days of a new formula – teams will add more performance to their cars at a rapid rate.

They need to, because in Melbourne the F1 cars were lapping almost six seconds slower than they had been just three years ago.

Race pace

This graph shows the race winners’ lap times throughout the Australian Grand Prix over the last four years.

Fears that Sunday’s race would be dominated by the need to save fuel were not entirely realised. However the shortening of the race distance by one lap due to a false start, and a five-lap Safety Car period, will have helped teams stretch their fuel out.

Such was eventual winner Nico Rosberg’s advantage that he clearly backed off to a significant extent for much of the second half of the race. Prior to that in the laps immediately following the Safety Car he had been on a par with previous seasons in terms of race pace.

Speed trap

One respect in which the new cars are undoubtedly more impressive than the ones they replace is straight-line speed. The V6 turbos propelled the cars to higher top speeds in three of the four measuring points during the race.

The higher top speeds but slower lap times point to a rise in power and a fall in downforce. That much was clear to see from how the drivers struggled to get the power down coming out of Melbourne’s slow corners – Valtteri Bottas’s tap of the wall at turn ten being the most obvious example.

The rest of the season will reveal how quickly the teams bring performance to their cars, and how much of it comes from unlocking more performance from their engines, or recovering lost downforce. With some teams already talking about making half-second gains in Malaysia next weekend, a fascinating development race is in prospect.

72 comments on How much slower were the 2014 cars in Australia?

lol – You are way off man. As stated by phmer3…the 2014 cars are SLOW. That is what FIA wants…I however think this is BAD. Huge leap BACKWARDS. To add to this, one lap is what the drivers can do in qualifying. During races, the need to nurse the fuel and perform eco-drive. F1 is no longer the pinnacle of motorsports. Sad times.

IMO saving fuel is better then saving tyres. At least saving fuel still means they are entering the corners at suicidal speeds and are desperate to maintain the highest possible exit speed to reduce the need to re-accelerate the car.
That said I would love to see them have 120kg of fuel for the race. Just to ensure that they aren’t driving at “unnecessarily” reduced power for very long.

But if they had enough fuel to actually race they would also need to remove the fuel regulation device to complete the job.This would most likely mean even more domination by the best car driver combination ,sure that would require some more of those marsh mellow tyres .I’ll get me coat.

I don’t think that the cars are so slow that it is even close to being a cause for concern.
The F1 cars of today are plenty fast. When I watch video’s from 20 years ago the cars still looks plenty fast, even though a modern F1 car would run rings around it.
Of cause F1 needs to be the fastest. Otherwise it would loose it’s status and all that, but I don’t think we are close to that.
No worries. With the new much broader powerband and lower downforce we are seeing the drivers struggle with the cars a lot more. I think that is well worth the loss of speed.
Heck, I wouldn’t mind them loosing 5 seconds more worth of downforce if that meant they were going sideways through casino square!

All of you who think that F1 is to slow don’t know what you’re talking about. Just complaining and complaining. It’s endless. You want more action, you wanna see, more overtakes, more of the car throwing around….If they go faster, there are less opportunities to overtake. The article clearly shows that F1 2014 has or will have more top end speed. They are just slower in the corners, which means less grip. More grip=less overtaking=less car sliding.
So you finally get what you wanted, but still complaining!
SHUT UP alredy!

I don’t think most people feel they’ve finally gotten what they wanted, and more grip does not equate to less passing when it is mechanical grip which gives drivers’ confidence to attempt passes. Also, cars sliding is never desirable for a fast lap so the teams and drivers will be working to minimize that, and it was never something fans were asking for…it has just become a bit cool to have it as a side effect of the new era. Nobody was saying F1 needs slidey cars. Also, this being race one of a whole new chapter I don’t think we even have a clear picture yet of what the racing is really going to be like once teams settle in with everything, so I agree it seems silly to complain just as it is silly to so say we’ve finally gotten what we wanted.